Indians Prospect Insider

There is a lot of buzz in the winter meetings that the Indians could deal All Star shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera for a collection of young talent to impact the roster in other areas of need next season. Jeff Ellis thinks the Indians should capitalize on Cabrera's value while it is at its peak as his career path is eerily similar to another former All Star middle infielder for the Indians who put up good seasons but battled conditioning issues before his career fell off a cliff.

It was a quiet night in winter ball for the Indians as two of the leagues were not in action, and there were just three games total that were played in the Dominican Winter League and Venezuela Winter League. But the was still some Indians action last night, and Tony chimes in with an update on how things went for Carlos Santana on the night.

Day one of the winter meetings is almost in the books. The news and rumors will surely continue into the night, and if anything of substance regarding the Indians has legs we here at the IPI will continue to provide updates. Tony gets us all up to speed on all the Happenings out in Nashville and who the Indians are talking to, and provides lots of insight on all the rumors from the first full day at the winter meetings.

Later today Tony will provide an extensive recap on the Indians activity and rumors at the first day of the Winter Meetings, but here are some quick notes and news bits on things connected to the Indians coming out of Nashville today. Asdrubal Cabrera continues to garner interest from teams, the Indians miss out on James Loney, they may wait on Delmon Young, and more.

Low-A Lake County had the youngest team in the Midwest League and caught fire in the second half to get into the playoffs. Tony recently had a chance to sit down with former manager and now new High-A Carolina manager Dave Wallace about the season his players had and how they improved over the course of the season. Players discussed include Jose Ramirez, Jake Lowery, Jerrud Sabourin, Jordan Smith, Francisco Lindor and more.

The Winter Meetings are typically when the offseason really begins to heat up, so with them scheduled to start today in Nashville, let us take a little time to get acquainted with some names Cleveland has been attached to this offseason. Any number of things could go down in Tennessee, but these are the players that Chris Antonetti has the best chance at acquiring as free agents, trade pickups, or recent non-tenders.

It was a moderately slow day for ATF on Sunday, with the majority of the prominent Indians' prospects and players taking the day off, or wishing they had. A Tribe-hand from years' past had a big day however, as he tries to find a major league team to give him one more chance to close out his career. Find out who, as well as the rest of the Indians' Sunday Winter League action...

We continue with our 2013 prospect coverage here at the IPI with a look at the third basemen in the Indians system. With the graduation of Lonnie Chisenhall to the big leagues, the Indians lack immediate big league options at the position but have a lot of young talent with upside a few years away. Tony talks about Kyle Bellows, Leonardo Castillo, Erik Gonzalez, Nick Hamilton, Todd Hankins, Yonathan Mendoza, Giovanny Urshela, Joe Wendle, and all the rest of the third basemen up and down the system and ranks them all, talks about their potential, and what kind of big league future they have.

Well, this is it. This is the time the Indians can prove a lot of naysayers wrong this offseason by making a few well orchestrated moves this week in Nashville during the frenzy that is the baseball winter meetings. The Indians have spent a lot of time the past two months assessing their roster and how they can fill the holes they have, but will they be one of the busier teams on the rumor front this week (as expected) or will they once again stand on the sidelines and watch? Tony has thoughts on that and lots more...

ATF dives into December with some more Winter League action in the Caribbean Leagues, as well as some Australian League games on the other side of the planet. Hector Rondon put his scoreless appearance on the line, and newcomer Mike McDade looked to build upon his two-hit performance on Friday. It was a full slate of appearance for Tribe-hands, so let's get to another edition of ATF...

Outfielder Jeremie Tice is getting used to his new position, recovering from another injury, and enjoying life with his newborn son. Injuries have plagued him throughout his career and he is just trying to overcome them the best he can and also be as consistent a player as he can. Stephanie Metzger recently had a chance to sit down with Tice to see how everything is going on all of those fronts and more.

Yesterday was the non-tender deadline and Cleveland had to make some difficult choices. The team chose not to tender contracts to Jack Hannahan, Rafael Perez, and Chris Seddon, letting them go into free agency. Additionally, it was announced that Corey Kluber had right knee surgery after injuring himself during the offseason.

Indians players were back at it on Friday, including the debut of starting pitcher Jeanmar Gomez, who put together a solid performance in the VWL. Plus, Carlos Santana continues to make progress and Jose Ramirez remains a hitting machine. Mike McDade also makes his Indians debut. The IPI's Steve Orbanek recaps all the action as he takes you Around the Farm.